1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a golf putter that reduces or eliminates the need for a user to bend or squat to place and lift a ball marker or to lift and replace a ball. More specifically, the preferred embodiment relates to a golf putter that comprises a marker placement and pickup feature and also a ball pick-up and placement feature. This way, a user who finds bending-over or squatting to be uncomfortable or difficult may play the putting portion of the game without leaving a generally upright standing posture.
2. Related Art
As is well-known in the game of golf, a golfer who has reached a green must often mark his ball location with a marker and lift his ball, and then, when other golfers in his group have putted, replace his ball and remove the marker before he begins to putt. This is according to rules and/or customs that allow the golfers, whose balls have fallen or rolled onto the green farther from the hole, to putt first; the closer balls. The closer balls may be an obstacle and are therefore marked and moved. These procedures require golfers to bend over and/or squat many times to reach the green to place and pick up the marker and ball. These actions become tiresome, painful, and/or difficult for many golfers, for example, older golfers, golfers with back injuries or pain, arthritis, or other problems or illness, or other people who simply prefer not to bend over or squat for various reasons.
The patent literature contains attempts to reduce the number of times a golfer must bend over during the game, and especially during the putting portion of the game. However, devices designed in an attempt to reduce the bending and squatting have traditionally required complex structure that results in operational difficulties and/or unattractive appearance, structure that is difficult to effectively operate, or structure that may damage golf course greens. Many of the devices require the marker to include a spike/pin extending from a surface of the marker and/or require a close fit between the marker and a pocket/slot in the device that results in difficult entry or exit of the marker from said pocket/slot. In other patents, the device is a separate apparatus that the golfer has to carry and use in addition to his conventional golf clubs/putter. Examples of devices from the patent literature, all of which have one or more of these problems, include U.S. Pat. No. 7,559,848 (Nickel), U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,971 (Zmetra), U.S. Pat. No. 7,059,971 (Scnmitt), U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,635 (Nadratowski, et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,426 (Bayer), U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,177 (Conrad, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,430 (Kepler), U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,082 (Channing, et al.), publication number 2007/0184913 (Dunks), 2002/0147055 (French), and 2002/0022539 (Smith, et al.).
Therefore, there is still a need for an effective device that reduces or eliminates the need for a golfer to bend over or squat to reach and manipulate a marker and/or ball on a golf course. Certain embodiments of the invented apparatus and methods solve some or all of the problems of previous devices, as will be apparent from the following summary, detailed description, and the attached drawings.